ClimbingSky

Why Baseball, Books, and the Grateful Dead matter

September 2025

  • LITERARY COFFEE: James Joyce

    There he is: the brother. Image of him. Haunting face. Now that’s a coincidence. Course hundreds of times you think of a person and don’t meet him. Like a man walking in his sleep. No-one knows him. Must be a corporation meeting today. They say he never put on the city marshal’s uniform since he… Read more

  • ‘Doc’ Gooden

    Dwight Gooden of the New York Mets struck out Ron Cey of the Chicago Cubs in the second inning – his 228th of the season setting a National League record for a rookie. Gooden passed Grover Alexander, who set the mark with 227 in 1911. New York won 10-0 behind Gooden’s one-hitter. Just for the hell of it, I asked ChatGPT what were… Read more

  • Ripken, Ryno, & Time

    On September 6th, 1995,  Cal Ripken, Jr. played in his 2,131st consecutive Major League game to surpass Lou Gehrig’s 56-year record. Ripken received a 22-minute standing ovation and went 2-for-4, including a homer, in the Oriole’s 4-2 win over the Angels. It is difficult for me to believe that 30 years have already passed since that day in… Read more

  • FOOD FOR THOUGHT: Sinclair Lewis on Fascism

    “When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross.” ~ Sinclair Lewis Read more

  • THROWBACK THURSDAY:”Kidnapped” by Robert Louis Stevenson

    Throwback Thursdays” at ClimbingSky feature posts I wrote over a 15 year period for various blogs. This was first posted on January 27th, 2018. As mentioned in an earlier post here, I have been reading some of the classic Adventure novels that I did not read as a boy or young man. These are books that I… Read more

  • September Blues

    “I see great things in baseball. It’s our game, the American game. It will repair our losses and be a blessing to us”.  ~ Walt Whitman It happens to me every September. One day I wake up and I realize baseball’s regular season is drawing to a close. And the weight of another long winter… Read more

  • Big Papi

    On September 2, 1997, David Ortiz played in his first Major League game. Big Papi hit 541 homers in his Hall of Fame career. How many did he hit for the Minnesota Twins, the team that he debuted for that day? 48. In one of the dumbest moves in the history of the world, in… Read more

  • How the Hell Did We Get Here?

    On September 1st, 1989, Eight days after banning Pete Rose from baseball for life, Commissioner Bart Giamatti dies suddenly of a heart attack at the age of 51 This summer Major League Baseball announced that Pete Rose was back on the eligible list for Hall of Fame voting even though he broke the cardinal rule of the… Read more